Local Architecture Award

Posted 17 October 2010

Last Thursday's Local Architecture Award, presented to Waitangi Treaty Grounds by the New Zealand Institute of Architects, evidences a forward focus and a new level of facilities for visitors to the nation's birthplace.

Harris Butt Architecture (HB) undertook the assignment to design a new bathroom block which would be "a delight". They adopted an approach sensitive to the landscape and to the existing John Scott visitor centre, yet modern, airy, bright and spacious.

The citation for the award emphasises this. "By separating the toilets from the main facilities, the architect successfully introduces the concept of journey. The siting is sensitive and the use of primal architectural form appropriate to the bush setting. Materiality and manipulation of space give the facility a lightness of touch."

In fact the journey at Waitangi has undergone considerable thought and development in the last two years. A new gateway building, opened last Waitangi Day by the Prime Minister, is also lofty, light and set in bush. It actually brings forward the start of a guest's journey so that the culture of Waitangi greets people immediately on arrival, before they venture up a covered bush passage to the bathrooms and John Scott building.

The new ablution building, reached through a punga-lined cutting in the bush, consists of a large gabled roof supported on a post and beam structure with glass walls to 50 percent of the exterior beneath. The roof hovers above the facilities and large, horizontal-cut macrocarpa bargeboards emphasise the horizontal and the floating nature of the roof. The solid surfaces of the walls and floor are attractively tiled concrete block. Along the ridge of the roof is a skylight, which floods the building with natural light. In summer, the sunlight also filters through the bush, dappling the interior.

Along the north face (glazed wall) the minimal vertical timber screen directs rainwater as it falls from the roof creating waterfalls onto stones and bush. The glass wall has obscure panels to address issues of privacy and where that is not required the clear glass allows connection with the surrounding landscape.

Materials are deliberately "simple" yet impressive – the tiled floor and walls, extensive glass, plywood ceiling panels, a colour-steel roof supported by a steel frame with inlays of oiled macrocarpa, and macrocarpa and pine screens.

In the last two years the destination has received as much attention as the expanded journey into the Treaty Grounds. A new coffee shop and gallery across the clearing from the bathroom building adds to visitor facilities and comfort. Recent re-roofing of the Treaty House and revitalisation and re-roofing of the shelter building for the world’s largest waka (Maori canoe) have also ensured that history is preserved for future generations.

 

 

Need to know more? Email Michael Hooper